The Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Sportsbook app has gone offline after the tribe lost an appeal in an appellate court. It was seeking to overturn the earlier decision of a lower court that had declared the online sportsbook unlawful.
Following the ruling, betting was temporarily suspended along with new accounts and deposits. All bets placed before 11:00 AM EST on December 4, 2021 will be settled, but any placed after that time are to be voided, with the initial bet amounts returned to the customer’s app wallet (which will remain active, allowing easy cash withdrawals).
The tribe fully expects to have the app go live again once the issue winds its way through the courts and is resolved in their favor. This, though, is a process that could take months.
The matter of Seminole sports betting has been a contentious issue in Florida over the past few months.
The Seminole Tribe introduced online betting through their Hard Rock App on November first, several months after the state legislature had decided to permit it. But any expansion of gaming in Florida requires voter approval and the issue is yet to be put on the ballot.
Two lawsuits were soon brought challenging the legality of the Seminole tribe’s online offering, which allowed bets placed anywhere in the state to be processed by servers on tribal lands. This, the plaintiffs allege, is in contravention of the Indian Gaming Act.
A circuit court had declared the Seminole betting app unlawful, so they appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This appeal was shot down by a 2-1 ruling which declared that it “has not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.”
So, for now, the app remains dark, and the betting suspended.
